Lahat ng Kabanata ng Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by the Crown: Kabanata 251 - Kabanata 260

Ember Frost’s POVI had never witnessed magic like this before.Streams of power tore across the altar, each spell more unsettling than the last. My pulse hammered in my ears as I watched. For the first time, I understood why ancient sorcerers had been feared for centuries.Compared to this, the magic most werewolf elders wielded felt almost ordinary. Powerful, yes, but familiar.Nothing behaved the way it should have. Attacks that looked certain to hit somehow missed. Others vanished before they could reach her. No matter how closely I watched, I couldn't figure out how she was doing it.Around me, every werewolf remained tense. Not a single person dared lower their guard.The black mist never stayed still. It drifted around the High Priestess in slow, restless waves, sometimes concealing her before revealing her again. The sight of it made me uneasy.What frightened me most was how little effort she seemed to be using.Attacks that should have forced anyone onto the defensive were b

Ember Frost’s POV“Bullshit,” I snapped.The High Priestess made a strangled sound, caught somewhere between rage and panic, but Malachar didn’t even glance at her. That alone seemed to push the woman closer to losing control.“My lord—this insolence, this disrespect—”“Enough,” Malachar said quietly.It wasn't loud, but the cavern fell silent all the same. Even the High Priestess stopped talking.A knot tightened in my stomach as I watched a thin strand of black mist appear beside Malachar.Orion’s voice cracked behind me. “Don’t—”I already knew what he meant. Move. Get out of the way.But I didn’t.Not because I was fearless. Because I refused to step back.The moment the mist touched me, my skin went cold.And then something inside me answered it.I wasn't trying to get myself killed.Provoking Malachar hadn't been an accident. I'd wanted his attention from the start. As long as he struck first, I would have a chance to use Lunaris on him.I'd considered attacking with Lunaris dir

Ember Frost's POVI pushed Lunaris outward. It answered at first, but then it wavered. The connection didn’t break, but it slipped out of place, no longer responding the way it should have. The souls still came, just not the way they should have. They drifted around Malachar in uneven fragments, unstable and out of rhythm, not fully obeying my control. Malachar tilted his head slightly, watching them without concern, as if they weren’t worth his attention. “That’s what you came up with?” he asked, sounding almost amused. “All that effort, and they still don’t listen properly.” A flick of his fingers scattered the closest wave of spirits. He didn't even bother avoiding them. My breath caught.My stomach tightened. The spirits weren't resisting him. They were responding to him. A sharp sound cut through the chaos. The High Priestess staggered as black light split the ground beneath her. The souls turned on her instantly. Whatever control I'd had over them was gone. They surged t

Ember Frost’s POVMedina’s protective formation held steady around Eira and me, sealing us into a small pocket of calm amid the chaos.Even through the barrier, bits of the conversation kept reaching us.Divine essence.Child.Soul rebirth.I knew what every word meant. That wasn't the problem.The problem was that none of it made any sense togetherFrom what I could gather, Eira had some kind of connection to Malachar in a past life. Maybe she had been his daughter.But the more I thought about it, the less it fit.The way Malachar and Medina spoke to each other didn't sound like family. It definitely didn't sound like former lovers either. If anything, it sounded like something far older and messier than either of those.Yet Malachar had claimed Medina had borne his child through his divine essence. And Medina hadn't denied it.That alone was enough to throw everything into question.I kept trying to make sense of it, forcing the pieces together into something coherent, but every co

Ember Frost’s POVA snowflake drifted down and landed on Eira's cheek. It stayed there.I waited for it to melt, but it didn't.Eira didn't move. Not a breath, not a twitch.I looked at her face, then at her chest, waiting for some sign of life.There was nothing.Eira was dead.No.I looked at her again.Eira was dead.I stared down at her, waiting for something to change. For her chest to rise. For her eyes to open. For someone to tell me I'd gotten it wrong.Nothing happened.I was still holding her, but the cold biting at my skin barely registered.How had it come to this?When?Or had she been slipping away long before I noticed?Snow kept falling.It gathered on the bodies scattered across the battlefield, softening their outlines until they blurred into the white. Every gust of wind covered a little more of them.I looked down at Eira.A few snowflakes had settled in her hair.A bitter wind swept across the battlefield.I blinked.The presence around me was gone.The voices tha